Zadin

This place gets easily lost on the block, but I love their emphasis on high quality ingredients. It's a couple bucks more expensive than I'd like to pay, but worth it for the quality. Try the vietnamese coffee -- its fantastic! more

I will admit that the service took a long time at Zadin. It is a new restaurant and was understaffed the night I came in, but the food was fantastic. I grew up in Orange County where there is an abundance of Vietnamese food in Garden Grove and my mother's kitchen, but Zadin managed to stand out. The spring rolls were amazing. The won ton wrapper added into it made them easily the best spring rolls I have ever had. The cilantro lime dipping sauce for the calimari was a favorite among my friends. The lemon grass pork was absolutely fantastic. My boyfriend is strangely enough not a big fan of food and absolutely despises San Francisco but after eating at Zadin, despite the wait, he keeps asking when we can go back. The other thing that was really appreciated by my friends is that the Vegetarian options are truly vegetarian - no fish sauce! If you want a quick meal, this is probably not the place to go, but if you have the time, good company, and want some really good Vietnamese food, this is well worth it. We were only in SF for one day, but Zadin was truly the highlight of our adventure. Pros: Beautifully decorated, amazing food. Cons: slow service more

The food at this Castro restaurant is ok, though we waited quite a while for it with never an acknowledgement from the staff about the delay. The wine pour is stingy. None of the staff ever asked us how our meal was, nor did they bother to offer dessert or clear the table when we were finished. Pretty interior design, though. We won't be back. Pros: interior design Cons: chilly, inattentive service, stingy with the wine more

zadin has delicious food and a cozy and vibrant atmosphere. i live in the neighborhood and i've been there twice already in the three weeks that they've been open. i think the former post got them on an off night because their calamari is absolutely delicious especially if you get lots of jalapenos. my friends and i are pho addicts and we had both the land and sea and the beef pho and both passed our very discerning pho palates. the lemongrass entree has good flavor but was served a bit cold so we sent it back and then it became a bit dry, will try it again though. she's right about the rolls, they are the best!! their signature fish rolls and their lemongrass pork rolls are addictive. where are the fried egg rolls though? Pros: great food. best appetizers in the castro!!! Cons: service is nice but new more

I was really excited to try Zadin based on the other reviews posted here, especially since the Mission is lacking good Vietnamese restaurants. Unfortunately, Zadin does not fill this void. The dinner started off strange. When we ordered tea expecting cups of green or jasmine typical at any Asian restaurant, we were given your average variety of tea bags with tepid water. What was good: the summer rolls (though we ordered the vegetarian ones and received shrimp instead) were flavorful and tender and the fried banana dessert was actually amazing. What was bad: the salt and pepper calamari's only distinct flavor was that of grease. The Land and Sea soup, my entree, was disappointingly bland, despite the blend of fish and meat floating around in the broth (which tasted of hot water and little else). My companion also ordered the same dish, but without the ""land"" (she doesn't like chicken). Nonetheless, she got chicken and pork in her soup as well. There was a 30 minute lapse between our appetizers and entrees, which seemed like a long time when waiting for soup and noodles, especially since the restaurant was only a quarter full. The crispy noodle entree that my other companion ordered was tastier--clearly the dish to choose. Despite all three of us leaving some portion of our food on the plate when our waiter collected them, when he came back later to take our dessert plate away, he remarked, ""Another plate with nothing left on it!"" triumphantly, as if to convince us that we had enjoyed our food more than we did. All and all, when the bill came--about $80 with tip--we all felt less than impressed with the value of our meal. Maybe it was just an off night. more